1446 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



about $73.00, leaving me as pay for the sea- 

 son's work and investment about $74.00. 



Now you will say, "Why, it did pay after 

 all. It paid big. It paid 100 per cent. 



But, wait a little. I have used 18 Banat 

 colonies, and worked about six fu(l days. 

 On the other 18 Banat colonies I have put 

 about a day's work all together, and have 

 taken off $90.00 worth of honey. I have di- 

 ^ ided the colonies, and would not take $90.00 

 for the bees and queens without the hives in 

 these new colonies; but to make it low enough 

 we will call the increase worth $50.00, mak- 

 ing $140 00 income from the 18 Banat colo- 

 nies. If I had not been in the queen busi- 

 ness, and had worked the whole Banat yard 

 for honey and increase, I should have saved 

 five day's work and earned $(56 00 more. So 

 when 1 am asked if it pays to raise queens to 

 sell, I answer not, in dollars and cents, at 

 present prices. But in addition to that I 

 must confess that raising queens is one of the 

 most interesting side-occupations of which I 

 have any knowledge. 

 Emporium, Pa. 



cold is not so severe as outdoors. During 

 the very coldest part of the weather, in the 

 absence of a cellar the difficulty may be 

 overcome to a certain extent by throwing 

 straw over the entrance to shut out cold 

 drafts— especially so if there be a high wind 

 at the time. In any case, it is always impor- 

 tant with outdoor colonies to keep the en- 

 trances contracted down very small, clean- 

 ing them out occasionally; for if they become 

 clogged with dead bees the colony is likely 

 to die. 



You say that you had not lost a colony 

 this way befoi"e. That is probably due to 

 the fact that you had not previously experi- 

 enced such a severe winter. 



After a very cold winter we find in our 

 experience that there will be perhaps ten per 

 cent of the outdoor-wintered colonies that 

 have literally etarved to death with stores 

 within an inch and a half of the winter-nest. 

 The same condition has been reported by 

 others. We know of no remedy except as 

 above pointed out. — Ed.] 



BEES STARVED IN WINTER WITH HONEY IN 

 THE HIVES. 



I had the same conclusion forced upon me 

 as did Mr. Hutchinson, as mentioned in the 

 June issue of The Bee-keepers' Review, but 

 my bees were snugly packed in extra winter 

 hives with tine hay on the sides and planer- 

 shavings on top to a depth of five to six inch- 

 es, and still mine starved with honey in the 

 hive; but they would not break cluster about 

 the small patch of brood. 1 had not lost a 

 colony this way before, and counted it a safe 

 way of wintering. C. J. Thies. 



Pepin, Wis , July 17. 



[During a severe cold winter, during which 

 the thermometer plays around the zero-point, 

 and remains there for ten days or two weeks, 

 you will be quite likely to find exactly what 

 you describe, in some of the outdoor-winter- 

 ed colonies. While protection, and plenty of 

 it, provides against this difficulty to a very 

 great extent, it does not entirely; and where 

 there is a prolonged zero spell we would ad- 

 vise taking the colonies into a cellar so that 

 they can expand the cluster before they act- 

 ually starve. When the cluster spreads it 

 will move over to the food; then when hun- 

 ger is satisfied it gradually contracts, when 

 the hive maybe moved out again; but it will 

 do no harm during very severe weather to 

 keep all such colonies confined in a cellar or 

 in an atmosphere or temperature where the 



DOES A HONEY-BOARD RETARD THE PROG- 

 RESS OF THE WORKERS? LIQUE- 

 FYING HONEY. 



Friend /?oo^:— Replying to queen- exclud- 

 ing zinc retarding the workers and allowing 

 an occasional queen to pass through, I beg 

 to say I have used it for years and I have the 

 the first queen yet to get through it. Where 

 they do go through, there certainly must be 

 a slight dinge in the zinc. It would be nec- 

 essary for a dinge to be only very slight to 

 let a small queen pass through. 



I have never been able to detect any re- 

 tarding of the workers. I had one colony 

 last summer that stored 125 lbs. in three ex- 

 traoting-supers in two weeks from hiving 

 over a queen-excluder. I should like a lot 

 of this kind of retarding next season. 



In regard to liquefying honey in 60-lb. cans, 

 page 3H5, 1 would say that, after putting the 

 can in the water, you must remove the cap 

 and press the top of the can down to the hon- 

 ey by striking the top of the can with the 

 palm of the hand, thus forcing the air out; 

 then put on the cap and screw down tight; 

 leave in the water until it is all liquefied, then 

 remove and let it stand until cold before re- 

 moving the cap, and you will have no ovei'- 

 flow, no burst cans, no foam, and no loss of 

 aroma. Eli as Fox. 



Hillsboro, Wis. 



TWO QUEENS IN A HIVE SEPARATED BY A 

 DOUBLE ZINC DIVISION-BOARD. 



I should like to know if there is any fault 

 to find with perforated zinc division-boards 

 in the center of a hive to separate two lay- 

 ing queens, so the workers can get on each 

 side of the hive. In case the queens climb 

 up the single screen and fight, it can easily 

 be avoided by putting two sheets of zinc on 

 a frame with a half-inch air-space between. 

 In this way I don't see why two laying queens 

 can not be kept in a hive the year round. 

 Two good laying queens in a hive are enough 



